My CT begins each class by inviting her students in to sit down, they aren’t allowed to enter without her permission. As they enter, they know to look at the “To-Do” list on the board and complete these items before class officially begins. One to-do list item is always to copy down the day’s homework (if there is any), which is listed next to the to-do list on the front board. This process takes about 5 minutes total. My CT does not spend a great deal of time collecting and passing back homework because students undergo notebook checks every few weeks, and this is where their work is accounted for.
When class officially starts, my CT usually begins by reminding students what was accomplished last class and will usually ask students to volunteer what they remember from last class. Sometimes she will go on to give them a brief summary of what will be covered that class period, but other times she just jumps into the activity, especially when it is a discovery-based lesson.
I like my CT’s approach to beginning class because it allows students to transition into this period and gives them some time to reorient themselves. It also takes care of all “business” items right at the beginning so that she will never be yelling the homework assignment over the bell at the end of the period as students already begin to file out. Although my CT uses quality instructional materials and clearly has developed rapport with her students, I think her practices could be further improved by some of the TLP principles. I think if she “sold” her activities to students a little better she could greatly increase student engagement in her class. As of right now, I see that students are mainly motivated extrinsically and complete their work to either get good grades or avoid getting into trouble. If some of the TLP principles were applied to get students more excited about the lessons I think many of them would become intrinsically motivated to complete their classwork. I also think that she could frame each lesson using the science principles discussed in NGSS to give students a little more direction. If she opened lessons by relating it to something a real scientist might do, I think that students might find more purpose in their work that they might view as arbitrary otherwise.
When class officially starts, my CT usually begins by reminding students what was accomplished last class and will usually ask students to volunteer what they remember from last class. Sometimes she will go on to give them a brief summary of what will be covered that class period, but other times she just jumps into the activity, especially when it is a discovery-based lesson.
I like my CT’s approach to beginning class because it allows students to transition into this period and gives them some time to reorient themselves. It also takes care of all “business” items right at the beginning so that she will never be yelling the homework assignment over the bell at the end of the period as students already begin to file out. Although my CT uses quality instructional materials and clearly has developed rapport with her students, I think her practices could be further improved by some of the TLP principles. I think if she “sold” her activities to students a little better she could greatly increase student engagement in her class. As of right now, I see that students are mainly motivated extrinsically and complete their work to either get good grades or avoid getting into trouble. If some of the TLP principles were applied to get students more excited about the lessons I think many of them would become intrinsically motivated to complete their classwork. I also think that she could frame each lesson using the science principles discussed in NGSS to give students a little more direction. If she opened lessons by relating it to something a real scientist might do, I think that students might find more purpose in their work that they might view as arbitrary otherwise.